I was very eager to read Cress, the sequel to Cinder and Scarlet, and it didn’t disappoint. You definitely need to read the series in order or you won’t have any idea who anyone is. Like the others, a new fairy tale is wound into the story in innovative ways. In this book, it’s the […]
Dork Diaries 2: Tales from a Not-So-Popular Party Girl
February 10, 2014 by 2 Comments
Unable to get my hands on the first book at any of the libraries available to me, I started with the second book, Dork Diaries 2: Tales from a Not-So-Popular Party Girl. The books seem to stand alone just fine—I didn’t feel at all lost starting with the second one. The Dork Diaries are the […]
Chains
February 5, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Like many Laurie Halse Anderson books, Chains often feels like a punch to the gut, but you also just can’t put the book down until you get to the end. This historical novel tells the story of Isabel, a young slave from Rhode Island in 1776. When her relatively kind mistress dies, Isabel knows that […]
Mississippi Bridge
February 3, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Mississippi Bridge is an illustrated novella rather than a novel, but the slim size and pictures shouldn’t lull you into thinking it’s a sweet book for young kids. It’s a powerful picture of racism in 1931 Mississippi, told from the point of view of a ten year old white boy. Jeremy, our narrator, spends a […]
Undercaffeinated and Overexposed: The Tale of a Coffee Shop Princess
February 1, 2014 by 1 Comment
In Undercaffeinated and Overexposed: The Tale of a Coffee Shop Princess, we meet Beauty—the princess from every fairy tale—who is currently living in Washington DC and working at a coffee shop. It turns out that the characters of fairy tales and myths are eternal. They relive variations on their stories, never truly changing, and are […]
The Titan’s Curse
January 31, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Review written by Jeff Dougan. The Titan’s Curse is the third installment in Rick Riordan’s bestselling series about Percy Jackson & his friends. The success has inspired a direct response called Son of Angels, published for Christians who think fantasy is evil. The first two books, The Lightning Thief and The Sea of Monsters, have […]
Miri Attwater and All That Glitters
January 29, 2014 by 1 Comment
The adventures of Miri Attwater continue in Miri Attwater and All That Glitters. It’s very much a sequel, picking up where Miri Attwater and the Ocean’s Secret left off (in fact, I kind of wished I’d taken the time to reread the first book) and I’ll assume you’re familiar with my previous review. Miri continues […]
The Thief
January 24, 2014 by 3 Comments
Review written by Jonathan Lavallee. It’s always interesting when someone takes a fantasy novel and kind of moves it away from the Tolkien England/Norse “standard” fantasy you’ll find in a lot of books. In The Thief, Megan Whalen Turner gives the place far more of a Mediterranean feel. On an island next to a big continent […]
Darkfall
January 20, 2014 by Leave a Comment
The Healing Wars trilogy comes to a conclusion with Darkfall. Nya has become a hero because of her abilities, and a lot of pressure is put on her young shoulders. She learns about her own destiny, tries to protect her friends and family, and works to defeat the Duke and save Geveg. You definitely need […]
The Whipping Boy
January 15, 2014 by Leave a Comment
The Whipping Boy tells the story of, well, a whipping boy and the prince whose punishments he gets. The whipping boy hopes to be dismissed from the castle so he can go back to the sewers to work as a rat catcher like his father did. He fondly remembers the freedom of that life. The […]
